Das Projekt "Klimaaenderung am und ueber dem subalpin-alpinen Oekoklin: Auswirkung auf Pflanzenvielfalt und -verteilung" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Ville de Geneve, Departement municipal des affaires culturelles, Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques durchgeführt. Plant diversity and distribution at/above treeline will be precisely investigated in two sites in the Alps of Valais, and the relationship with climate will be established at several levels of complexity (from population to landscape) to assess climatic change impact scenarios. 1)Diversity will be studied for both bryophytes and vascular plants, and related to functional types. 2)Phenological observations on reproductive biology and growth (7 Bryophytes, 8 vascular plants) will be related to climate on the masis of micro- and mesoclimate measurements. 3)Data will improve the static-explanatory Alpine Plant Distribution model (ALPLANDI, in progress) for the analysis of the relationships between species, vegetation, landscape units, and environmental variables through multiple regression analysis with Generalised Linear Models (GLMs) and Generalised Additive Models (GAMs) in order to produce Potential Habitat Distribution Maps of species (PHDMs), potential phenological maps, and modellised vegetation and landscape maps. (4) A long-term monitoring for dwarf shrubs synusia and vegetation complexes will be implemented with permanent plots. Leading Questions: 1. What will be the impact of climatic change on plant diversity at the upper subalpine and alpine vegetation belts? 2. What is the relative importance of both climate and orography on plant diversity at the upper subalpine and alpine vegetation belts? 3. To what extent is the phenological development of important species of the upper subalpine and alpine vegetation belts related to, and affected by climate, in particular temperature and precipitation (micro, mesoclimate)? 4. How reliable is modelling of alpine and subalpine plant distributions if only modelled variables (e.g. altitude, slope, aspect, solar radiation, temperature, precipitations, permafrost distribution derived from digitised elevation model and remote sensing) and already existing general data (e.g. geology, hydrography) are to be included in the model? 5.How are the complexity levels (populations, synusia, plant communities, vegetation complexes) going to react (persistence, progressive and regualr adaptation, abrupt change, catastrophic collapse)?